As Jason Terry said: “We’ve got to go to New Orleans and get a win. It’s been a tough place for us to play, historically. We all know our record there. But we’ve got to get a win.” … That’s about as blunt as it gets when you are riding a three-game losing streak. … The Mavericks have a 16-15 record in New Orleans, and they had to go to the wire to win there, 83-81, earlier this season. Before that, they had lost eight in a row at the Hive. … Their 3-point shooting has been miserable of late, hitting just 25-of-105 (23.8 percent) over the last four games. … Dallas has been outrebounded by an average of six boards in both losses coming out of the All-Star break.

Scouting the Hornets

They are coming off a 95-84 loss to Toronto, which dropped their home record to an abysmal 3-15, by far the worst in the Western Conference. … They never had a chance to get on track this season after trading Chris Paul because the key player they got for him, Eric Gordon, has been out for all but two games with a right knee injury. … Also out for the Hornets are forward Carl Landry (knee), center Emeka Okafor (knee) and center Jason Smith (concussion). … The Hornets’ best chance to win games is to ugly it up. They average barely 88 points per game and have no healthy player averaging more than 14.8 points per game (Jarrett Jack). … Center Chris Kaman has played well of late, averaging 16 points and nearly nine rebounds over the last six games.